6th July 2004 Obs meeting room 10.15 - 13:00 Present: JRL, PSB, MJI, DWE, WJS, STH, JMI Apologies: RGM Agenda ------ 1. Actions from last meeting 2. Comments on WFAU minutes 3. JAC/WFCAM news inc. Derek's visit 4. Report from SPIE meeting 5. MSB design issues 6. Status of WFCAM processing hardware + JRLs Sybase IQ kit 7. Status of UK VDFS URD 8. Results of CASU job interviews 9. Q3 work plans Q2 progress 10. AOB - RIX responses - APM building news update - next grant round bid Minutes ------- 1. Actions from last meeting STH as made progress (!) regarding the spatial systematics in the UFTI standards data. Photometry is taken at 5 positions so that a sky flat can be generated. However, fringing may be a problem with this. The data from each of these positions were stacked separately. No fringes were detected at the 1% level. This was carried out for the J and H data. With this data no effect can be seen, however this is not an extensive test. More data would be required if, further tests are required. MJI no progress on comparison of FIRES project reduced data with ours (catalogues for the FIRES data are needed) - ongoing <<<< JRL reported that QFITS 2.0 has been released and progress has been made. Almost all items on our wish-list are there or can be "got-aroundable". For example, a single extension from a multi-extension FITS file can now be extracted (although not by using the usual [] naming convention). The main thing that is missing is image compression. JRL was asked to get in touch with ESO regarding this item. It was generally thought <<<< that a short (2 page) document summarizing our wish-list for CPL/QFITS would be useful. PSB was asked to draft this and then circulate it so that it could be sent to Michelle Peron by the end of July. <<<< ALL the job interviews for the CASU post have taken place (see item 8) MJI has sorted out the building name. The name will probably be The ASU APM building. PSB has placed the VISTA Survey Planning document on our internal web site. It was mentioned that Martin Folger will probably visit ESO to discuss survey issues with them. JRL gave a presentation at the PPARC Data Curation Review, which was well received. The main catalogues stored on the Cambridge server are AAO, UKIRT and ING. 2. Comments on WFAU minutes It was noted that PSB has also done some soak testing of keyboards and has found that Broadside is particularly effective. There was general agreement with the viewpoint that we should consider the cost effectiveness of attending meetings (the value-for-money of the SPIE meeting was noted). We should not go to these meetings just because they are there. However, JRL noted that an exception to this was the ADASS meeting in Pasadena (October 24-27). The deadline for abstracts is 2nd August. It is probable that JRL will be attending from CASU. 3. JAC/WFCAM news inc. Derek Ives's visit JRL reported on the meeting he had with Derek Ives. One of the main things was an explanation of the read-out modes of the camera. Currently all 4 science arrays are in the test camera and are being tested. The cross-talk characteristics seem to only occur within a quadrant due to some nifty wiring. The persistence seems to have a very large time constant of about 1 minute (not an RC value). This may be a possible problem. Derek will do some flat fields for us to test the reset anomaly (on a timescale of two weeks). JRL should obtain this data and a copy of the report of the recent tests. <<<< Due to corrector plate properties, WFCAM is now well sampled with 2.2" FWHM images. The current plan is to ship with the current corrector and then replace it with one that is of the correct shape. The result of the acceptance tests is that the electronics and detectors have passed, but there are problems with the optics. If all is OK, the camera will be shipped in mid-August with the schedule being unchanged (due to built-in slack). The next telecon will be next week. 4. Report from SPIE meeting Nigel Hambly, Jim Emerson and MJI gave presentations at the SPIE meeting in Glasgow. No new issues were raised at the meeting. JPE suggested that ESO might consider doing the data reductions since they were carrying out the calibrations anyway. 5. MSB design issues All UKIDSS survey heads have now submitted plans. UDS will be using a similar plan to that of DXS. This will be a 9-point dither pattern (fixed) which will be within 10" of each other so that no interpolation will be required (no astrometric distortion). 2x2 microstepping will carried out in addition to this. Offset skies (GPS) must be within an MSB in order to ensure that they are carried out contemporaneously. The LAS MSBs will be dependant on the observing conditions. The minutes of the last UKIDSS Implementation Meeting (9/6/04) are available on the web: ............ Since this occurred a few weeks ago it was decided that STH should contact Simon Dye to find out what is happening. <<<< The current set of MSB designs will be processable with relatively simple stacking algorithms ie. no resampling. This will mean that the MSB processing will be a simple process. 6. Status of WFCAM processing hardware + JRLs Sybase IQ kit MJI reported that this was ordered about 2 weeks ago (after a slight grant delay) and has arrived. The hardware consists of 5 twin processor 3 GHz machines with ... fill in blanks here. JMI has installed Debian on these machines. The current plan is to test the machines by processing the IPHAS data on them. The data for each filter will be fed into a separate machine. WJS asked what would happen if all of one night was in a particular passband, could the processing cope since only one machine would be being used. There might also be problems with this scheme eg. persistence. It is not 100% clear how linear the processing is and what bits can be parallelized. It was noted that a backup mirror (via rsynch) was created every 6 hours (what is the scope of this? ie. what is backed up?) but that this was to another APM machine. DWE suggested that it would be wise to use a machine in another building to store the backup. JMI will investigate this. <<<< JRL reported that he had been testing a version of Sybase IQ. This is a large read-only (ie. only update occasionally) database. The results have shown that it is very fast (PostgreSQL is very slow in comparison). The remaining question is which version of Linux to use (Enterprise or Fedora). 7. Status of UK VDFS URD JPE has circulated a version of the UK VDFS User Requirements Document. This has had some restructuring carried out to it, so it was suggested that WJS do a quick check of the document in case some section references have broken. <<<< WJS said that some useful input has come from the VDUC members and a section on variable stars has been added. There was also some discussion regarding the Z filter. PSB said that even though the current finances do not stretch to buying a Z filter, the URD should task the pipeline with the ability to process such data. We should all read the current version of the URD. <<<< 8. Results of CASU job interviews The advertising for this post was deliberately low key in order to not be swamped by applications. There were 8 applicants and 2 were interviewed. Both will be working at CASU next year. 9. Q3 work plans Q2 progress The next VDMT meeting with be on Thursday 15th July in Edinburgh. Progress reports for the last month, earned values data (days or %) for the last quarter and next quarter tasks to STH by Friday. <<<< 10. AOB - RIX responses It was decided that all that went to the PDR (starting with PSB) should comment on the RIX's in turn and then pass on the document (rather than all duplicate the same comments). <<<< - APM building news update This is still on schedule. By 1 September the APM building has to be cleared out. There was a bit of discussion regarding were to place all the stuff. It was suggested that we recolonize part of the RGO building again. MJI said that Paul Aslin saw political reasons why this might be difficult. MJI should raise the issue again with Paul Aslin. <<<< It was pointed out that the newly acquired hardware would not be running while the building work was being carried out. Only apm6 would be up and running and able to process WFCAM data during this period. - next grant round bid The next grant round will need to be in by the end of September. This will cover the period 1 May 2005 - ???? and will include WFCAM operations and ..... MJI noted that Paul Hirst's User Guide has WFCAM with a sensitivity 1 magnitude worse than for previous estimates - UFTI predictions and original estimates. Continuing Actions ------------------ MJI compare FIRES project reduced data catalogues with ours (generate catalogues for the FIRES data) New Actions ----------- JRL contact ESO regarding image compression within QFITS PSB draft a short document summarizing our CPL/QFITS wish-list. Circulate this so that it can be sent to Michelle Peron by the end of July. JRL obtain data and copy of the report of the recent tests from Derek Ives. STH contact Simon Dye to see what is happening regarding the MSB design. JMI investigate changing the rsync backup to a machine outside the APM building. WJS check UK VDFS URD for broken section references ALL read the current version of the UK VDFS URD ALL monthly reports and quarterly data to STH by Friday PSB comment and circulate on RIX's WJS MJI JRL STH MJI raise issue of using RGO building for storage